There are many good groups, charities, drives, purposes, and quests to try to stand up to cancer. Equating sitting down to smoking a cigarette is not one of them. More exercise is good. Clean eating is good. Regular medical check ups are good. Preventive medicine is good. Telling people sitting down too much will kill them, is bad. Using fear as a tool for a good cause is nothing more than a pipe dream, it is an oxymoron. Fear is a tool for bad, and evil. A good cause, in the end cannot benefit from using fear as a tool.

Scaring people to exercise? Most people are already scared to exercise. Are we counting on a double negative? The threat of diabetes and aesthetic exile aren’t already enough, we’re going to go the; being fat will give you cancer route?

I am a person who exercises regularly. I am a person who believes in physical fitness, clean eating, mental sharpening, and emotional well-being. I have also been a fast food eating, knowledge hating, couch potato. People who live a life, in which their hopes and dreams, of the life they want to live, are vastly beyond out of reach; seek solace in the relaxation and escapism that a comfortable seat and a high-definition screen to stare at, provides them.

Epidemic is not a term to be used or confused lightly. An epidemic is not solved by telling people to drink more water and/or take more vitamins. The obesity epidemic in America is as much a psychological one as it is a physical one. Until we as a society, culture, and race are willing to address the tough, deep, and complicated questions about why people are willing to cause massive suffering to their bodies in the name of temporary pleasure for the mind and spirit; then anything and everything done to curb such behaviors and habits are nothing more than lip service. The only thing worse than lip service is fear mongering, which is exactly what the sitting is the new smoking movement is; even if it is a road paved with good intentions.

This question and the “counter terrorism campaign” that the United States is engaging in with ISIS/ISIL is a teaching lesson for both entire world. The lesson is that the definition of war is different than it was before the year 2000. War is now, predominately, airstrikes and bombings from remote-controlled, unmanned, flying drones.

The reason President Obama and the media have been using the term “boots on the ground” so early and often recently, is because boots on the ground is how most people think of war. People think of war as ground troops, trenches, tanks, hummers and so on. Men fighting men, or person fighting person on the ground with swords, guns, etc is what people envision when a war is being fought since the beginning of time. That is no longer the case, or perhaps a better way to put it is, ground troops are no longer required for America to be at war.

A formal declaration of war is no longer required to go to war. We have learned that over the past half century with America’s involvement with North Korea, Vietnam, and Iraq. What we are learning over the past decade is that human soldiers or boots on the ground, are also no longer required to go to war. We now send unmanned, weaponized, flying drones.

But war is war no matter what we or the government may like to call it. 30 dead school children is not a by-product of an airstrike gone awry, it is collateral damage of a war.

We’ve also learned in the last decade that we don’t need a country to go to war with. That’s not liberal sarcasm. Al-Qaeda is not a country and neither is ISIS. Remember in 2001 when George W. Bush declared a “War on Terror”? Well that wasn’t a metaphor. We were at war in Afghanistan before the end of 2001 and by mid 2003 we were at war in Iraq. Under Obama we have been at war in Yemen and Somalia. The difference between Bush and Obama’s wars? Bush’s involved human soldiers, Obama’s involve drones.

So now in addition to our drone wars in Yemen and Somalia, we are carrying out additional drone wars in Syria and Iraq.

Let us not be fooled or fool ourselves, America is at war. America is perpetually at war. America is constantly at war. Why? Well there are those in the world that if left unchecked would commit a 9/11 style attack on our country every hour on the hour. That fact can’t be denied. Pandora’s box has been opened in regards to the militarized, religious radicals of the middle east trying to jihad America until the country is nothing more than rubble and ashes. The other reason we are perpetually at war however, is the Military Industrial Complex.

Make not mistake and don’t let yourself be fooled. There are real threats to America’s safety in the world AND the Military Industrial Complex is in the business of keeping America engaged in military action for the same reason McDonald’s wants as many people to eat hamburgers as humanly possible. Drones help keep the body count down, and keeps the money coming in. Until the latter somehow changes, America will always be perpetually at war regardless of the size or severity of any and all threats against us.

Priorities can be hard to prioritize. In a world where there are multiple wars, Ebola outbreaks, wildfires, droughts, massive political corruption, famine, floods etc; celebrity gossip, cat videos, memes, and ironic gifs rule the media and our attention spans. More people vote for reality television talent competitions than in elections. So it is with the utmost pleasant surprise to find that America has tangibly and measurably decided that the future of net neutrality is more important than a female pop singer exposing her nipple at a football game.

Remember Nipplegate? If you don’t, you’re lucky or young or both. Well up until this month, that issue was the event that the FCC received the most complaints about in their history. Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson decided that a Sunday evening musical performance during halftime at the most watched television event in history (at the time) was a good time to expose one of Jackson’s nipples covered in a silver pasty. Middle America freaked out and a wrath of censorship followed. One of the many side effects of this was Howard Stern moving to satellite radio.

The people have spoken, the 99% wants the open internet to remain as is. It is positively refreshing to see so many people speak up and speak out about something of such grave importance. Remember just because many people use the internet to fuel procrastination, narcissism, and vices doesn’t mean those are the only uses for the internet. The open internet is vitally important to the present and future of our society and culture.

What will the FCC do now that the people of spoken? Comcast, Time Warner, and Verizon are hoping to use lobbying based leverage to gain complete control over the world wide web. This issue is a true litmus test between who has more power in the world going forward; the 1% or the 99%. Whichever way the FCC ends up going, whether people know it or not, we all have a horse in this race.

However, Netflix has now officially earned some benefit of the doubt for reasons other than how good House of Cards and Orange is the New Black are. Netflix has taken three public steps that directly help the consumers:

Netflix may be looking out for its own bottom line. But each stance that they have publicly come out in favor of or against directly benefits working class people who use the internet. Coming out against the proposed merger which would create a broadband monopoly, is a good thing for consumers. Drawing attention to net neutrality is good for consumers. Encouraging the development of municipal broadband is good for consumers.

In the fight against the billion dollar companies who want complete control of the internet, the common people need someone with deep pockets in our corner. Netflix has repeatedly stepped up to the plate publicly this year alone. They’re not a non-profit or NGO. But when billion dollar corporations are doing everything they can to reduce choice and increase cost to access the information superhighway, we the consumers will take help anywhere we can get it. I for one, will take the million dollar company that brought Arrested Development back, in my corner any day of the week.

Reporters getting arrested isn’t as big a story as SWAT teams repeatedly threatening civilians on camera and using military like force against unarmed civilians on camera. Certainly the death of an unarmed civilian at the hands of police officer, followed up by days and weeks of not only unapologetic but antagonistic conduct by the police force against the rest of the town of Ferguson’s protesting population is a bigger story than journalists being arrested.

However journalists being arrested in America is a big deal. In the big picture, in the grand scheme, a precedent of journalists being arrested on American soil for doing nothing within the realm of anything against the law is a bigger deal than the death of a single civilian. That may sound highly insensitive to some. I understand and accept that. If it was a relative of mine, or someone in my area of residence, I would certainly be more outraged about the killing of an unarmed teen and tear gassing of peaceful protesters more than some male, Caucasian reporters who got arrested in a McDonald’s and released a few hours later.

But the freedom of the press, is in the First Amendment. Right up there with the right to free speech. Journalists may get arrested and/or beheaded in the Middle and Far East, but not in America. When the press is getting arrested for merely trying to grab a bite to eat and recharge smartphones, we have bigger problems in America than a few racist cops in the heartland.

The war on the press is not a cold war either. It has very much been a hot war under the Obama Administration. An administration that has been dubbed “the greatest threat to press freedom in a generation” by a New York Times writer who is being prosecuted by the Obama Administration for doing his job and not revealing a source for an article he wrote.

Ferguson has brought many issues that the public has wanted to ignore into the national spotlight. This is the light that comes after the darkness of a tragic event. All the issues listed at the beginning of the article are important issues that need to be not only talked about but addressed through local, state, and federal regulation. I would simply point out that without a free press, which is being attacked by local police in Ferguson, and the Executive Branch of the United States Government, none of us would know what is going on in Ferguson, Washington, or anywhere that isn’t our own backyard. And our free press is very much in real danger in real time.

Essentially, the public got wind of a filler in ground beef that contained ammonia hydroxide and was in the majority of mass-produced ground beef in major grocery stores and fast food chains. This led directly to the public flipping out, the (pink slime) filler to be removed, pulled from shelves, burger patties, etc…

But, America’s attention span is measured in 140 character online text messages and six second looping video clips. The media attention has gone away, the consumer outrage has gone away, and with that, the pink slime is coming back.

Why? The price of beef is going up, and putting pink slime into beef helps keeps costs down for manufacturers. So pink slime processing plants are reopening and pink slime will soon be back in our burgers and on our grocery shelves.

Will the public object again? Will mainstream media stoke the fires of public outrage again? Or do the majority of consumers and producers just want cheap beef?

Have you noticed more news on data breaches, password stealing, and hacking as a tool for war in the news recently? It’s not just you, and it’s not just sensationalism.

It turns out the internet being referred to as the information superhighway is an apt metaphor. As it has been recently revealed that the highway is more potholes than road.

In addition to have more holes than concrete, stretches of solid road that exist are seemingly ruled by Mad Max/Road Warrior style gangs in the form of international hacker mafias. No information on the open internet is secure. That was one of the lessons that should have come from the Edward Snowden NSA Leaks last year. But that fact took a distant second to the US government having a full-fledged Orwellian domestic spying program active, in place, and recording everyone’s emails, text messages, phone calls, and data placed on social media.

Not only is our personal, private information not safe from our government but our stock markets aren’t safe from international hackers either. The NASDAQ got straight up hacked into by Russian hackers in 2010. The hack and investigation into it were recently declassified and chronicled in a great article by Bloomberg Businessweek. After the FBI, CIA, NSA, and Secret Service each took turns looking into the matter, it is still unknown exactly how the hackers got in, what they took, and/or what they left behind. Essentially the only thing they know is that the hackers were Russian.

The last year and a half will be remembered as the golden age for conspiracy theorists. Before you know it there’ll be a video released showing big foot, shooting Kennedy, from the studio where it staged the moon landing.

Learning that the information super highway is more potholes than roads in the long run, is good for us. We must be less trusting of faceless corporations. I know we’d all like to think Mark Zuckerberg is our friend, but he’s just another CEO trying to make money off of his customers. Not only are social media companies selling our information first hand through data brokers, but the information is so unsecure that all social media services are serving as enablers for identity thieves.

I can only imagine how much of my personal information is being packaged and sold on the black market. I’ve signed up and signed away my identity to a plethora of social media providers. But I’m a lower risk target. When I check my bank account online moths fly out of my monitor. But there are plenty more people who have plenty more to lose who have plenty more valuable information floating around online. And what we have definitively learned is that the information is NOT secure, it is floating around, waiting to be snatched by any hacker collective willing to put in the time and money.

There is no going back from the digital revolution. We’re not going back to analog and paper. So what is the solution? I don’t know, I just hope a solution is found before I have enough money to invest online.

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are fundamental rights in America. So if that is actually true, and we can’t live without water, is water a right? The water companies in Detroit don’t think so and have been shutting off water supplies to delinquent customers.

The problems of the urban dystopia that is Detroit are pretty well-known. But I don’t think most people in America thought the situation in Detroit was worthy of the attention of the United Nations. Since we are in the United States of America after all, it is hard to fathom human rights violations worth of the attention of international governing bodies could be allowed to occur here. Well, welcome to the new normal.

I recently starting watching the Netflix original program House of Cards. It is a fictional show, but the more and more I watch it, the more and more it feels like a psuedo documentary of Washington D.C politics in the dark and behind the doors. The controversial and shady manner of how CISPA has been repackaged as CISA and is being attempted to be rushed through Congress reaks Frank Underwood.

Last year, when CISPA was brought to light, the public and (all) the tech companies went very politely apeshit. If you don’t know what CISPA is and couldn’t be bothered to click on the link above, it basically puts the NSA on steroids and makes the steroids legal.

CISPA = The End of Privacy

The public has made it clear they do not want this legislation. Google, Reddit, Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter, and basically every other big company that makes money through the internet informed the public about the negative privacy implications of CISPA and the public let it known they wanted the bill killed/stalled/not to become law of the land. The tech companies then did what is really required to pass or kill legislation, used millions of dollars to fund lobbyists.

Much like in House of Cards, now that the first bill has been killed in the court of public opinion, the real bill is going to be attempted to be crafted and passed behind the closed Congressional doors.

Now CISA is heading to the Senate floor, after being rushed through committee, so it can be quickly voted on before the current Congressional session expires. American politics mixed with American ingenuity, if at first you don’t succeed at an agenda with shady politics, try and try again.

Social network sounds so much more appealing than electronic social emotional psychological experiment platform.

It was recently revealed that in 2012, Facebook manipulated the news feeds of just under 700,000 users, in order to measure the effects the news feed changes, on the mood(s) of the user(s).

The exact number of users who were unknowingly experimented on is 689,003. The exact amount of time was one week. Facebook showed less (than) positive posts from both friends and publication providers. Facebook did not get the consent of the users to do this experiment.

Me personally, I find something like this to be disgusting and despicable. This is also a great learning lesson on a variety of levels. Let’s focus on how the results of the experiment show what social conditioning is.

Social conditioning is how we learn to think, perceive, and act through the media (movies, television, music, magazines, newspapers, social media websites/platforms, etc).

Facebook proved to themselves and to the world that social conditioning is a very real, very applicable, very effective social-emotional concept. Social conditioning shapes all of us, myself very much included. Facebook itself can be considered one big social conditioning machine.

It was also learned in the experiment that emotions are contagious. That people can in mass be manipulated to feel happier or sadder. What are the implications of this? What other large companies have performed experiments like this in the past? In the present?

I’m not going to bring this article down the conspiracy theory rabbit hole. There are simply questions worth asking of ourselves internally as well as the external world around us. How much of what we think and feel is rooted in our own personal identity, integrity, character, and principles? How much of our identity, values, and consent has been manufactured?

Think about it. Be aware of it.

What is “it”? It in this case would be the non material aspects of what makes you up as a person. Your thoughts, feelings, and so on. Do you think, perceive, and act based on what you internally believe? Or are you being so manipulated by the world around you that you have no identity that isn’t a corporate brand or group think produced? No one is above being asked that question, especially not yours truly.